nurses and midwives nhs

Let it rip and let old people die

December 1, 2023 by Madeline Lucre Leave a Comment

According to former British PM Boris Johnson, COVID-19 was “just nature’s way of dealing with old people” and he didn’t buy “all this NHS overwhelmed stuff”.

An inquiry into the British government’s handling of the pandemic heard shocking evidence from former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top science adviser Patrick Vallence, who detailed the chaotic and callous management of the crisis in his diaries

Vallence’s contemporaneous notes, dated from August 2020, expressed his opinion that Johnson was keen to let “the young get on with life and keep the economy going” – which Vallance described at the time as a “quite bonkers set of exchanges”

Vallance noted that “[Johnson] says his party ‘thinks the whole thing is pathetic and COVID is just nature’s way of dealing with  old people’”.

Vallance’s diary also recounted how then Conservative chief whip Mark Spencer told a cabinet meeting in December 2020 that “we should let the old people get it and protect others”.

Brenda Doherty, who lost her mother during the pandemic, told The Guardian: “He clearly didn’t see people like my mum as human beings, and thousands of others died unnecessarily after the  same mistakes were repeated because of Johnson’s callous and brutal attitude.”

It is estimated that 230,669 people have died from COVID-19 in Britain. The majority of deaths were of people aged 75 or older.

English nurses stand firm on pay

June 2, 2023 by Madeline Lucre Leave a Comment

Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) mark May Day with another 24-hour stoppage – their third strike this year,

While some employees within the National Health Service accepted a 5 per cent pay offer from the government, nurses belonging to the RCN and junior doctors from the British Medical Association (BMA) have vowed to continue their campaign for fairer pay rises.

RCN members had never gone on strike in their 106-year history until last year. The 280,000 members are now poised to vote on whether to escalate the strikes.

If RCN members vote in favour of further strike action, the union will have a mandate by law to conduct strikes for a further six months across the full NHS.

Another NHS union – Unite – also rejected the government’s pay offer.

“It is quite frankly a joke that NHS workers are being forced to fight for a decent pay rise after years of pay freezes and all their sacrifices during the pandemic,” said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham.

Unite said “the government is choosing to let the NHS collapse”.

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said it was regrettable that strike action had to be taken but that the government needed to improve its pay offer.

“Nursing staff are looking for a fair settlement that shows the government values and understands their profession. We appear a long way from that currently,” she said.

“The government is choosing to let the NHS collapse.” — Unite

British nurses and midwives launch unprecedented strikes

February 3, 2023 by Madeline Lucre Leave a Comment

It is the first strike action in the Royal College of Nursing’s 106-year history.

On 15 December, around 100,000 nurses and midwives across England, Northern Ireland and Wales went on strike for 12 hours. Another strike in England and Wales took place on 20 December.

The strikes were repeated on 18–19 January.

Nurses and midwives are demanding a pay rise of five per cent above inflation, which is running at 14 per cent. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says that their pay fell by six per cent in real terms over the last decade and lags behind nurses and midwives in other developed countries.

The strikes are about more than money, say experts.

“Pay is the lightning rod; it’s attracting all the energy,” Jim Buchan of the Health Foundation told The Economist.

But it “cannot be disentangled” from working conditions, he said.

During COVID an enormous number of nurses left the NHS.

Figures published by the NHS in September revealed a shortage of 47,496 nurses, meaning nearly 12 per cent of jobs are unfilled. Those who remain must work harder, as they tackle a waiting list that has ballooned from 4.6 million to 7.2 million in early 2020.

Pat Cullen, general secretary of the RCN, said the strike was “a difficult decision taken by hundreds of thousands in a bid to be heard, recognised and valued”.

In a recent RCN survey, only 18 per cent of nurses said they had enough time to provide the quality of care they would like to.

A survey by pollster YouGov found that almost two-thirds of Britons supported the nurses’ strikes.

Key facts that explain the British nursing strike

Typical salaries for nurses have fallen by 5.9 per cent in real terms compared to 2010/11 levels
Depending on how inflation changes, the Nuffield Trust – a health research institute – predicts that nurses’ real-terms pay this year will fall to around 10 per cent below levels in 2010/11
The average nurse in England earned around £35,989 (A$63,045) a year prior to the latest pay settlement
There are an estimated average of 17,000 nursing posts unfilled on any given day in the NHS
1 in 9 nurses left active service over the course of a year between 2021 and 2022 in England.

‘Pay is the lightning rod; it’s attracting all the energy.’ — Jim Buchan of the Health Foundation

British nurses vote for historic national strike

December 16, 2022 by Madeline Lucre Leave a Comment

300,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have voted for a first ever national strike, which is expected to take place before Christmas.

The RCN said the government has failed to address a workforce crisis and that the “exploitation of nursing staff cannot be tolerated any longer”, the Guardian reported.

An analysis by the Nuffield Trust published earlier this year found that 40,365 nurses quit the National Health Service in the year to June 2022 – equivalent to one in nine.

The RCN said that since the Conservative Party took power in 2010, the pay of some experienced nurses has fallen by 20 per cent in real terms. They have called for a pay award rise of 5 per cent plus inflation – a total of about 15 per cent.

Pat Cullen, RCN general secretary and chief executive, said: “Patients are at great risk when there aren’t enough nurses. Huge numbers of staff – both experienced and newer recruits – are deciding they cannot see a future in a nursing profession that is not valued nor treated fairly.

“Our strike action will be as much for patients as it is for nurses – we have their support in doing this.”

Unison – the other major union in the NHS – is also balloting its 350,000 members, including porters, nurses, paramedics and cleaners, about strike action in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

UK midwives vote to join industry wide strike action

December 1, 2022 by Madeline Lucre Leave a Comment

The British Royal College of Midwives (RCM) members working for the National Health Service (NHS) are currently voting to join their nursing and allied health colleagues in taking strike action.

The RCM is balloting their 30,000 members across the NHS in England and Wales, asking if members are prepared to strike over the UK government’s pay offer and poor staffing levels. The ballot closes on 12 December.

This is the second time midwives in England have voted to strike, and the first time Welsh midwives have voted on taking industrial action in the College’s 142-year history.

RCM members in Scotland have already voted in overwhelming numbers to take industrial action. In a turnout of 61% of eligible voters over 88% voted yes to taking industrial action consisting of a strike. On the question are you prepared to take industrial action short of a strike, 94.6% voted yes.

The strike vote follows midwives’ rejection of the UK government’s below inflation pay offer of a 4% increase. The current rate of inflation in the UK is 11.1%, – the highest rate in 41 years.

Dr Suzanne Tyler, the RCM’s Director of Services to Members, criticised the UK government’s wage offer as out of touch.

“It clearly shows that governments do not value the skills, dedication and incredible commitment of midwives and maternity support workers,” Dr Tyler said.

“It also shows that they either do not understand or simply don’t care about the financial pressures facing our members and their NHS colleagues.”

Ms Tyler urged the government in England and Wales to do more “to retain staff and bring in others into the NHS” noting that a “meaningful pay offer and urgent retention package is a good place to start.”

The RCM has reassured the public and staff that a strike would not prevent the safe delivery of service and that any industrial action taken “would not put women or babies at risk.”

Last week the Royal College of Nursing reported they had secured a mandate from their members to go strike, with the majority of NHS nurses across all employers voting in favour taking strike action.

The trade union Unison Healthcare, with workers including nurses, is also in the process of balloting members about possible strike action over pay.

Health workers at greater risk of burnout, UK study finds

October 28, 2022 by Madeline Lucre Leave a Comment

A study conducted by Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and King’s College London has found healthcare workers are up to three times more likely to experience burnout when compared to other non-healthcare professionals.

The UK study consisting of three online surveys was conducted over the second half of 2020. It assessed the rates of major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, insomnia, burnout, and low emotional wellbeing of British healthcare workers.

The results showed a steady decline in UK healthcare professionals’ overall mental health and wellbeing, finding that by the end of 2020, healthcare workers were over three times more likely to experience burnout than those working in non-healthcare settings.

While researchers have suggested that COVID-19 impacted the overall mental health of the general population, the psychosocial hazards in healthcare settings such as the higher workloads, excessive overtime, increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 and the stress of caring for patients meant that healthcare workers were under significantly more stress than people working in other professions.

The study also raises concerns not only about the impact of burnout on healthcare workers’ mental health but also their physical health, citing concerns that if long term burnout persists, it could result in an increase in cases of cardiovascular diseases, including strokes or coronary heart disease, amongst healthcare workers.

Dr Ajay Gupta, study author and Senior Clinical Lecturer at Queen Mary and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Pharmacology and Cardiovascular Medicine, indicated that the study raised significant concerns about the mental health of health workers in the aftermath of COVID-19.

“We should all be worried about the disproportionately high rates of burnout in healthcare professionals, which may persist and lead to an even greater staffing and retention crisis for an already overburdened and underfunded NHS,” Dr Gupta said.

“It’s a problem that no-one seems to want to address, and we could be sleep-walking into a disaster unless we listen to our healthcare workers’ concerns and give them the support they need. Unless we can stop the burnout trend, we could see more mental health and physical consequences such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in our doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers.”